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The controversial cleaning of copper ... 1874 Indian head

joe dert

Elite Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
995
Unfortunately I have no original pictures..all my Indian heads from past beach finds have undergone my first step cleaning after a 6 year soak in olive oil..(changed once a year) all the sand encrustations have already been removed on the first photo..it originally was only indentifiable as an Indian Head..no date or details.. almost entirely covered..
 

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This is a step I take to find missed corrosion..this is after it was all shiny.. I treated it to expose missed areas..as evidenced near the denticles ..you can see a strong color difference near the U in United..then it got a final cleaning and prepared for the finishing steps..
 

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6 years???

It just worked out that way.. I never got around to working on them for 6 years..but the oil is only to slow down corrosion.. minimize the exposure to air and moisture.. mineral oil is good..you can start working on them immediately if you want to..in fact I think it's easier to clean a fresh coin than one that is dug and left outside of oil and gets dry..just my opinions
 
That coin looks great! Did you clean it with something other than oil?

Yes.. I don't feel that the oil does much for cleaning..just keeps the coin in suspended animation so to speak.. I use a combination of chemicals both to clean and "restore".. many things will work if used with caution.. I use baking soda to grind off crud and to neutralize or control the coloring..the right coins can be given a lighter bronzy brown..but the coloring step is purely up to the eye of the beholder...I'm working on more natural coloring by staging the end process over weeks instead of minutes..we'll see ..trial and error as always in this venture..
 
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